开始水下搜寻马航失踪客机黑匣子

Crews in the remote southern Indian Ocean have begun the underwater hunt for the missing Malaysian jetliner's flight data recorder, which is set to run out of battery power in just a few days.

Retired Australian Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said Friday a U.S. Navy towed pinger locator is being dragged across a 240-kilometer track to try to detect a signal from the black box.

Authorities estimate they have only until around Monday before the batteries run out on the black box's locator beacon, which transmits electronic signals, or pings.

That date marks 30 days since the Boeing 777 mysteriously vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. A massive, multinational search effort has turned up no traces of the jet.

On Friday, an expanded team of 14 airplanes and nine ships continued their so far fruitless mission of looking for possible signs of wreckage floating on the ocean surface.

Houston, who is heading up the Australian agency coordinating the search, said crews have not given up hope of finding some debris floating on the water.有关人员开始在南印度洋海域搜寻马航失踪客机的飞行数据记录器。按照设计规定，黑匣子的电池将在几天内耗尽。

退役的前澳大利亚空军司令休斯顿星期五说，目前正在240公里宽的海域使用美国海军的脉冲信号定位仪探测失踪客机黑匣子发出的信号。

有关当局估计，黑匣子的电池大约将在下星期一耗尽，不再发出信号。

自这架原定从吉隆坡飞往北京的波音777客机失踪后，到下星期一已经过去30天，目前多国搜寻行动还没有找到有关这架客机的任何线索。

星期五，14架飞机和九艘船只继续在印度洋搜寻可能在海面漂浮的失踪客机残骸。

休斯顿是澳大利亚联合搜寻行动协调中心的负责人。他说，搜寻人员还没有放弃找到浮在水面上的失踪客机残骸碎片的希望。